


The Heart of Rebellion

by Akiko_Natsuko



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of Violence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Choices, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Forgiveness, Guilt, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memories, Nightmares, Rescue, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 10:11:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19082914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: '“No one.” Something about the voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place why, and he didn’t have time to worry about it. The words themselves were hollow and sounded as though they had been repeated a hundred times over until they stuck. It reminded him painfully of how he had sounded, repeating the family tenants by rote after they’d been etched into his mind by what the Shimada clan had called training, and what he would now call torture. They were words without meaning or feeling, but words that meant everything at that moment. ;When Genji is rescued by a Talon operative during a mission, he sees some of himself in his rescuer. It's an interaction that stays with him even as he thinks that it was nothing more than a brief meeting that will never be repeated, until a desperate attempt to prevent Talon and Vishkar's spreading influence, brings his one-time saviour back into his path. Only this time their roles are reversed, and he and Jesse find themselves drawing on the past and pushed to the edge to save him.





	The Heart of Rebellion

 

    Genji darted along the top of the wall that ran around the perimeter of the storage yard, eyes flicking rapidly from side to side. It was quiet, too quiet, and it was making him nervous. In his experience missions that were inexplicably quiet, especially when you were expecting resistance, were the one that went drastically wrong, fingers straying to his chest as they always did at the prospect of running into a Talon ambush since his encounter with Doomfist all those years again. It was a nervous tic he had never managed to shake, and he was glad that the others couldn’t see him, especially McCree, as he knew the gunslinger had been worried enough about this mission, without needing to worry about him.

 _“Genji, have you seen anything?”_ As though summoned by his thoughts, McCree’s voice erupted in his ear, and he winced, for once grateful for the training that had been drilled into him as a child as even though he jolted, he didn’t slip on the narrow wall.

“Nothing,” he reported, uneasiness making him sharp as he came to a halt, precariously balanced on the wall. There were eyes on him, he was sure of it, and they burned into him the intensity of a predator. “Something is wrong,” he murmured, glancing up and weighing the distance between him and the closest tower of shipping crates. It was going to be a hell of a jump, but right now he wanted to be anywhere but where he was, and he sprang, fingers just managing to grip the edge. A quick scrabble against the side was the only sound, a dull metallic clang that sounded deafening in the night air and he swallowed back a course as he flipped himself up and over onto the top, falling flat and holding his breath. One hand rising to cusp the communicator as McCree’s voice came again and with more urgency.

_“What do you mean? Genji?! Genji, what is going on?”_

      He wanted to reply, to ease the concern in his partner’s voice, but he willed himself to stillness and listened, waiting to see if there was any reaction to the noise. However, as the seconds ticked over into minutes, he dared to let himself breathe again, closing his eyes as he fought the urge to reach up and rub at his chest again. _This is different._ The feeling of danger hadn’t disappeared, but it no longer felt as though he was directly in the crosshairs, and after another minute, in which McCree’s questions had grown a lot more urgent and demanding, he uncurled his fingers and sighed. “I’m fine, but something is wrong. There are no guards, no patrols – not even standard security.” That was the most unsettling fact because there should have been someone, even if it was just a security guard shirking his duties, but there was nothing.

 _“We’ve noticed that too,”_ McCree replied, voice moving away for a moment and Genji guessed that he was reporting to the others that he was all right. _“But the information came from a good source and if there’s even a chance that it’s right…”_

“I know, we need to be sure,” Genji agreed, before adding under his breath. “But I don’t like it.” The information had come from Soldier 76, and while it was still an unspoken thing between the old guard, they all knew who he was and that all the tips he had provided them with had panned out. In fact, he was probably one of the few reasons why they had been managing to even to remotely hold their own against Talon.

   Sighing, he lifted himself onto his knees and scanned the yard. The towers of shipping crates made it hard for him to see much of the ground, and they cast large areas of the ground into shadow, and he worried at his lip before slowly flipping a shuriken into his hand. “Let’s get this done quickly, I don’t want to linger here.”

 _“We’re nearly inside,”_ McCree replied. _“We’ll meet you by the main building.”_

“Understood.” Genji rose to his full height, a shadow broken only by the soft glow of his cybernetic parts. He took a deep breath before moving. Despite his plea to make this quick, he was still cautious enough to take an erratic path, darting from tower to tower, surefooted even in the poor lighting, as he made his way towards the dilapidated building that appeared to be the main office from the yard.

    He was halfway there, leaping from one shipping container to another stack that looked as though something – possibly a crane had collided with it at some point, leaving the top two containers at an angle when the first shot rang out. It missed him, skidding against metal too close to his foot for comfort and sending sparks into the air. At once, he lunged to the side, throwing the shuriken in the direction the shot had come from, praying to find a target in the darkness. A second shot, this one going a little wider suggested that he might have hit his target it, or at least rattled the shooter enough to save his skin, but he still had no idea where they were.

    There was no way he was going to lead them towards the others, and as a third shot rang out, he moved. Running along the top of the shipping container he was on, before springing up into the air, trying to make a target of himself for a moment to try and locate them. He was beginning to fall, starting to think that they weren’t going to take the bait when he caught a glimpse of the red light of a sniper rifle before the shot rang out. He twisted in mid-air, just managing to escape the bullet, but he was caught off guard by the second shot that followed much quicker than the others had. It caught him in the shoulder, tearing through metal and wires, and setting artificial nerves on fire, drawing a ragged cry from his lips as he fell like a stone.

     He tried to slow his form, reaching out to grasp at the crates, only to feel something further tear in his shoulder. Cursing up a storm in his head, the only thing he could do was brace himself for landing, managing to twist so that his cybernetic parts would take the brunt of the impact. It didn’t stop it from hurting, or all the breath being forced out of his lungs as he landed with a clatter that echoed loudly in the silence. He allowed himself a moment to lie there, slightly stunned and struggling to catch his breath, before forcing himself up with a groan, that deepened as he felt the dampness seeping from his shoulder. Clutching it, he reached for the communicator, not wanting to worry the others, but knowing that they had probably heard the shots anyway. Besides, Jesse would kill him if he didn’t tell him he was injured, but he had barely touched it before the feeling of being watched returned, accompanied by the soft scrape of boots on concrete.

    Whoever it was skilled, barely making a whisper of sound, but Genji wasn’t just anyone. Dropping the device, he reached for his sword as he pressed himself back into the container, trying to merge into the shadows, as he half drew the weapon and waited. The sound disappeared for a moment, but he didn’t move, barely breathing and apparently, he was the more patient of them, because the sound came again, this time in a rush of motion. A dark shape came charging around the corner, abandoning stealth in favour of trying to catch him off guard. It was a mistake. Genji was injured, his dominant arm all but useless at his side, but he was also prepared, and the months he had spent with a broken arm so that he could learn to fight with his left hand as a child, meant that luck wasn’t on his opponent’s side.

    It had always bothered him how easy it was to slice through flesh, and that hadn’t changed, although he didn’t hesitate as he met the charge with his own lunge, katana sliding between the man’s defences and biting deep. It was a good strike, but its impact was lessened by the unfortunately familiar Talon armour, and he had to dance backwards out of reach as a fist flew at his chin. He pulled the blade with him, twisting it and drawing a pained howl from his opponent.

    However, that bothered him less than the sound of more footsteps rushing towards them and the sound of raised voices barking orders. Now he did curse, and dodge to the side, as his assailant rushed in, desperation forcing him to try and finish the fight. It made him reckless, and Genji cut him down with a quick flick and twist of his katana, catching the man across the narrow-unprotected strip near his neck. Blood welled even as the man gasped, a wheezing noise the last thing he made before he crumpled at Genji’s feet. There was no satisfaction in the victory, and no time to savour it, because the noise was moving towards him, a rolling wave of sound that promised trouble and sheathing his blade and gritting his teeth against the pain he bolted deeper into the maze of shipping containers.

    It was harder to keep his bearings down here, the darkness making everything look the same between the old flash of colour where a bit of moonlight penetrated through to where he was, and all he could hope was that he was moving away from McCree and the others. Taking a perverse comfort from the fact that the Talon forces were still on his tail, sometimes closing the distance, other times falling behind as he proved nimbler on the corners but dogged on in their pursuit. _I guess the lead was right,_ he thought, as sparks skittered across his skin as some of the agents drew close enough to shoot at him. It was a small comfort but didn’t help his current situation, and he glanced up. He needed to get up high if he wanted to stand a chance of getting out of this but climbing without his right arm was going to be a nightmare.

But not impossible.

    He took the next corner at top speed, fingers grazing metal as he used the momentum to grip the side of a container and flip himself upwards.

It wasn’t enough.  

    He could feel himself slipping and beginning to fall, knowing that if he hit the ground again now, then they would be on him. Desperately he flung his right hand up as well, imaging Angela’s scolding voice in the back of his mind as he gritted his teeth against the pain, knowing that he was making the damage worse. But at least he would be alive. For a moment he was caught, dangling from the edge, unable to let himself fall, but not sure he could push himself up, pain searing down his arm even as he tried to shift more of his weight onto his other arm. _This isn’t going to work,_ the thought broke through the pain as he felt his grip beginning to slip, and he closed his eyes, waiting to fall, hoping that when he did, he would be able to thin the Talon forces enough to help the others. It was all he could hope for, and never one to put off the inevitable he let go.

He didn’t fall.

    Another noise registered over the sound of the approaching Talon agents, moving faster and closer, wheels against metal he realised, eyes flying open a split second before a warm hand seized his wrist. Mercifully they’d caught his uninjured arm because the grip was bruising, and he caught a brief glimpse of crimson light before he was being flung upwards. His saviour’s momentum, doing what his own couldn’t and his feet found the next lip, and he scrambled upwards. It wasn’t graceful by any means, and he was aware that he wasn’t alone as he managed to work his way up onto the top of the tower, away from the angry voices below. It wouldn’t buy him much time. Already he could hear them shouting to find another way up, or a way to bring the tower down and him with it, but it gave him precious seconds, and he turned, coming up short as he spied the figure now crouched at the edge of the container.

    They belonged to Talon. There was enough light from the moon, and from the flickers of crimson light across the front of the man’s uniform, and across the bottom of his…not boots, but skates Genji realised as he glanced down, the strange noise making sense now. There was another sound he realised, tilting his head to the side, and it took him a moment to place it as music. It was barely audible, like a radio that had been dialled down to the lowest level, but it was oddly soothing, seeming to pulsate over him, and he could have sworn that some of the ache in his shoulder had eased.

“Who are you?” He had one hand on his katana now. The man had made no effort to attack him yet, but Genji couldn’t ignore the fact that he was Talon. He wished that he could see their face clearly, as it was easy for people to lie with their words, but it wasn’t light enough to give him more than fleeting details such as dark skin, and a grimace at his words.

“No one.” Something about the voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place why, and he didn’t have time to worry about it. The words themselves were hollow and sounded as though they had been repeated a hundred times over until they stuck. It reminded him painfully of how he had sounded, repeating the family tenants by rote after they’d been etched into his mind by what the Shimada clan had called training, and what he would now call torture. They were words without meaning or feeling, but words that meant everything at that moment.

“You’re the man who just saved my neck,” he corrected. He let his hand fall away from his weapon, it wouldn’t be needed here, although he doubted that his words would be enough. After all, Jesse’s words hadn’t been enough for him back when he had first been rescued by Blackwatch, and he’d had more than enough reason to break away from his family and their teachings. Yet even when he had been unable to move, and little more than a broken husk because of what his family had done to him and Hanzo, and what Hanzo had done to him, he hadn’t been able to close the door on the lessons they had drilled into him. He could have said a lot more, waxed lyrical about why this man was clearly someone, but he didn’t waste his breath. Instead, he did what McCree had done for him back then and changed tack. “Why?”

“Why?”

“Why,” Genji repeated, pleased to hear the note of confusion. That was where the opening would come from, he just had to make him think for himself. To ask questions and seek for the real answers rather than relying on the ones that had probably been drilled into his head. “We’ve never met before. We’re not friends. And we’re on opposite sides here, and yet you risked helping me.” He doubted that the other agents had seen his rescuer, which was probably a blessing, but it had still been a risk. One that not many people, especially the sort that were attracted to Talon, would choose to make. _So, who is this man? And why could I swear I’ve heard his voice before?_ It was still bugging him, but he was no closer to finding an answer when the man shifted uneasily, before rising to his feet. Genji tensed briefly, wondering if he had misread the situation, but the other man made no effort to close the distance between them. Instead, he seemed to be wavering, glancing out across the yard before back at Genji.

“You didn’t need to die here.” It was an answer, but it wasn’t the truth or at least not entirely, the words still forced and stilted. Whatever hold they had over him was strong, and it would take more than a brief encounter with a stranger to break. _And yet he answered._ Genji hadn’t back when McCree had first challenged him to think for himself, it had taken weeks of pressing to get even a reply out of him, and months before there had been a seed of truth in his words. “That’s all there was to it, and you should leave. I’m not going to save your neck again.” There was a harshness in those last words that didn’t belong to him, whatever or whoever had a hold over him bleeding through and Genji took a step through, knowing that the window of opportunity had closed for the time being.

“Understood.” The man was moving, graceful on his skates in the same way that Genji was when he was in top form, and it was a joy to watch and maybe that was why he stepped forward just before his rescuer could jump down. “Still, thank you.” He wasn’t out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew that he would have been in a far worse situation were it not for the other man.

“Don’t die…” The man had stiffened for a moment, and Genji had half expected him to snap at him not ‘thank him’ as that was what he would have done in that place. The quiet words that were half plea, and half order were a surprise, and by the time he had shaken off his shock, the man was gone, a flash of crimson against the darkness marking his path until he passed out of sight. _I won’t,_ he promised silently as he turned away, pressing a hand to his shoulder and weighing up his options, unable to resist glancing back at where the man had disappeared.

  _And next time, I hope that you can give me a truthful answer._


End file.
